| A．An earthquake. | B．A fire. | C．His boss. |
2 . Several art projects are on show to warn people of the climate change happening around us.
Video on the walls
Photographer Camille Seaman has traveled to both the North Pole and the South Pole, where she has captured the disappearing ice in photographs and video. Camille Seaman made a video with some of her most powerful photos of melting ice for people in four coastal cities to display on their buildings. The video ends with a prediction that sea level will rise by 2050 without relative action.
Mural (壁画)changing color
Temperatures in Austin, Texas, are on the rise, and climate change will put the city at higher risk of extended drought, wildfires, intense rain and flooding. Artist Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz designed a unique mural that changes color as it gets hotter. This art work calls for people to change the world and change climate change, underlining the importance of individual actions to the collective future.
Public billboard (广告牌)
Artist Christine Sun Kim released a public billboard on the 710 Freeway called The Sound of Temperature Rising. It points to the reality of climate disaster that has become all too clear on the West Coast and the need for significant change now. The illustration features a graph (图表) of music notes that get progressively longer and redder.
Anti-Extinction Library
Globally, species are disappearing at an unheard-of rate. In response, architect Mitchell Joachim created The Anti-Extinction Library in New York. The sculptural piece is not only beautiful but also functional. Their unique egg-shaped library has a special freezer storing test tubes with the frozen cells and DNA of rare animals and plants. It’s important for people to realize we must quickly work to protect the rights of different species in our area.
1. What is the key feature of the mural?| A．It lights up at night. |
| B．It moves with the wind. |
| C．It plays music when it rains. |
| D．It changes color with temperature. |
| A．Camille Seaman’s. | B．Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz’s. |
| C．Christine Sun Kim's. | D．Mitchel l Joachim’s. |
| A．To praise artists’ participation. |
| B．To call for people to take action. |
| C．To show the severe result of climate change. |
| D．To facilitate the combination of art and climate. |
1. What does the man suggest doing in an earthquake?
| A．Going outside. | B．Protecting the pet. | C．Hiding under something. |
| A．10 years ago. | B．20 years ago. | C．25 years ago. |
4 . The essence (本质) of fast fashion is to make clothes inexpensively and quickly, to get new trends and styles into stores and online as soon as possible, and it comes at a high social and environmental cost. Keeping production costs low means they can make their clothes cheap, using cheap labour in unsafe working conditions, and in countries with bad environmental regulations.
Throw-away culture is deeply rooted in our society; three in five of our clothing pieces are thrown out within a year. Fast fashion brands keep the consumers hungry and feeling like they need more by attracting them with newness and convincing the consumers that they need what they’re selling. This only results in increasing textile waste as people no longer want but throw it away.
Criticisms of the fast fashion industry include its negative environmental impact: water pollution, the use of toxic (有毒的) chemicals and increasing levels of textile waste. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. Fast fashion companies rely on their products being made cheaply and quickly, so they avoid talking when it comes to being aware of their impact on the environment. Greenpeace’s recent Detox Campaign showed that many brands use toxic and dangerous chemicals in their supply chains, and many of the chemicals are either banned or strictly controlled in lots of countries.
In conclusion, the fast fashion industry has a bad effect on our environment through fast fashion brands’ ecological practices and only continues to make the problem last for a long time in the future through extreme consumerist culture. In order for change to happen, the common people need to open their eyes and take measures to prevent the fast fashion from growing.
1. What’s one of the characteristics of fast fashion?| A．Causing a lot of anxiety. | B．Making people buy old clothes. |
| C．Selling most clothes through stores. | D．Producing clothes quickly. |
| A．They are mainly sold online. | B．They are made in unsafe countries. |
| C．They are made by cheap labour. | D．They save the cost of advertising. |
| A．Natural. | B．Surprising. | C．Absurd. | D．Puzzling. |
| A．Changing fast fashion brands’ working conditions. |
| B．Changing clothes stores’ sales model. |
| C．Introducing stricter laws for factories. |
| D．Raising public awareness of preventing fast fashion. |
Maybe you think protecting the environment is a big problem and beyond your ability.
Plant more trees. Choose an open area near your house or school. Plant a tree every month, and encourage your friends
Save energy. There are so many electrical
Choose to walk short distances instead of taking a car every time. Go walking to school or use
Save water. Water is a very important natural resource. It’s we
Make your action
6 . How much rubbish do you imagine a person will produce in his lifetime? It’s about 127,604 pounds of rubbish. However, Lauren Singer, who majored in environmental science at New York University, began working toward living a “Zero Waste” lifestyle while still studying at university and has been completely “waste-free” for the past two years, proving that a waste-free lifestyle is possible.
Lauren regularly writes about her experiences of a zero-waste life on her blog. Though she was determined to take a waste-free lifestyle, she admits that the past two years have been very difficult. However, she now feels that she is getting used to this kind of lifestyle. “I stopped buying packaged products and began bringing my own bags at the supermarket,” she explained, “I stopped buying new clothes and shopped for only secondhand things. As more and more time passes, I produce less and less.
Even though the journey is hard, Lauren’s zero-waste life is well worth the effort. She now saves a lot of money because she only buys what she needs rather than buy things blindly. She also eats fresh fruits and vegetables instead of packaged foods.
Today she has learned to make all of her own everyday eco-friendly products, such as toothpaste, shampoo, kitchen cleaner and so on in order to avoid creating unnecessary rubbish. She also founded her own waste-free company, the Simply Co., through which she sells her homemade products.
The 23-year-old girl has become an inspiration to many. And now she is busy giving talks on TV and accepting news reporters’ interviews about her zero-waste lifestyle.
Lead a waste-free lifestyle — We are the future of this planet!
1. The author takes Lauren Singer’s lifestyle as an example to prove that __________.| A．it is possible to live a waste-free life | B．it is wise to buy secondhand things |
| C．it is necessary to learn environmental science well | D．it is easy to make a living by giving talks on TV |
| A．She started a zero-waste life three years ago. | B．She helps a company sell homemade products. |
| C．She has drawn many news reporters’ attention. | D．She only eats fresh fruits and vegetables. |
| A．by bringing our own bags | B．by buying packaged products |
| C．by selling our own goods | D．by making our own everyday eco-friendly products |
| A．Money Grows on Trees: Recycle paper. | B．Being Green: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. |
| C．Show Your Care, Don’t Pollute the Air. | D．Cool Kids Help a Warm Planet. |
7 . Julia Butterfly Hill worked at a restaurant. For many years, she was only interested in making money. Then one day she had a serious car accident, which changed her life. Hill said: “I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet.”
As soon as she recovered, Hill traveled to California and she wanted to do something meaningful. There she saw ancient redwood trees, which are the largest trees in the whole world. The wood from redwood trunks is very hard. So the Pacific Lumber Company cut down many of the huge redwoods to use for construction. There are not many forests of these trees left. Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees. The redwoods are very important to the environment.
In 2012, Hill learned a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees. They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree, hoping this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered.
Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down. Her home was a 6-by-8-foot tree house, 180 feet up. It is always cold and wet in a redwood tree. There were even very serious winter storms while Hill was in the tree. The wind and cold almost knocked Hill out of the tree. But she did not fall — she survived.
Finally, after years of arguing, the company decided to protect Luna, the tree Hill lived in. They signed an agreement to never cut down this huge redwood tree or the trees around it. When Hill put her feet on the earth again, she began to cry. But from that moment on Hill hasn’t stopped working to protect the environment.
1. What problem did Hill find in California?| A．The Pacific Lumber Company lost much money. |
| B．People could only use the redwoods for construction. |
| C．Environmental activists didn’t work together. |
| D．The redwoods were disappearing quickly. |
| A．Comfortable. | B．Tough. | C．Cool. | D．Satisfying. |
| A．She once lived in a redwood tree for over two years. |
| B．She had a sense of social responsibility. |
| C．She finally gave in to the Pacific Lumber Company. |
| D．She continued working to protect the environment. |
1. Why does the woman invite the man to the beach?
| A．To collect some plastic. | B．To see a whale. | C．To relax. |
| A．The community. | B．The government. | C．A recycling company. |
| A．Responsible. | B．Lazy. | C．Emotional. |
With the development of industry, air pollution is getting more and more serious. In Shanghai, many people suffer from different kinds of illnesses because
Air pollution is
10 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the last five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into fabric to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.
Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years now. He explains that every time synthetic clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers are entering the sewers and finally end up in the sea.
In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic(合成的) clothing can produce more than 1, 900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.
This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can absorb other pollutants.
Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution.” Even though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he's had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support Benign by Design-his research project that seeks to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one women’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.
1. What has happened during the past five years?| A．Fabric has become much stronger. | B．Plastic pollution has been less serious. |
| C．Many plastic bottles have been reused. | D．Microfibers have been greatly improved. |
| A．It is adding microfibers to the clothes. |
| B．It is worsening environmental problems. |
| C．It is making synthetic clothes last longer. |
| D．It is doing great damage to washing machines. |
| A．It has achieved great success. | B．It hasn’t got anything done. |
| C．It is known to very few people. | D．It is facing some difficulties. |
| A．It’s important to learn to recycle |
| B．It’s never easy to solve pollution problems |
| C．Recycled plastic clothing: solution or pollution? |
| D．Are human beings moving forward or backward? |
